The Los Angeles Clippers have been taking some serious steps forward as they try to get closer and closer to being a legit NBA title contender. Changing owners last year was one big move, as it helped team morale after decades of dealing with the controversial Donald Sterling. The team itself took their game to a new level during this year’s playoffs, too, as they topped the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in round one and were one win from advancing to their first Western Conference Finals in team history.
With the positive change lately, new Clippers owner Steve Ballmer clearly has his sights set on using it to better the team. He’s taken the initiative himself, as he’s reportedly hitting the streets to help market the team’s bold new re-branding of sorts. While the Clippers arguably already had a slick looking logo (see it here), Ballmer and co. went for a more modern look with a big letter C encasing L.A.
Bad History
Ballmer has reportedly been trying to pull off some type of rebranding ever since taking over the Clippers two years ago, and his vision is finally coming to life. Thanks to a dark history that involved Sterling and a whole lot of losing, Ballmer could be correct in assuming the Los Angeles players and fans could be receptive to a fresh start.
“Let’s face facts,” Ballmer said while appearing on Conan O’Brien’s late night show to promote the rebranding, “You look at the history of the Clippers, it’s not a happy history.”
The big concern, of course, should be whether or not the direction Ballmer and the Clippers went in was the right one.
Good Change?
A case can be made that L.A.’s old logo and jerseys were just fine, although some felt that the cursive writing of the logo on the jerseys were out-dated. The new logo is certainly different, but lacks any real flash and comes off as generic. In fact, there have been ties to it looking like it came straight out of the 2006 NBA Live video game, while it’s worth noting that if you’re not paying attention you might confuse it with the Chicago Cubs logo.
Ballmer and the Clippers did more than give the logo a face-lift, though, as they also added alternative jerseys for L.A. to use. The red jersey looks just as slick, if not better, as their old red jersey, but the black jersey is a total miss.
While the new logo and jerseys are somewhat questionable, it’s nice to see the Clippers moving on from their old look and trying new looks. Even more important is what Ballmer is trying to do in general, and that’s distance this current rendition of the L.A. Clippers from a team that lost regularly and got used to it. New jerseys and a different logo won’t make or break the Clippers, but it could provide a refreshing feeling as they go into the 2015-16 NBA season and try to pick up where they left off last year.
Love or hate the new Clippers logo? Tell us in the comments below!
